Every RPM Canadian Content #1 single discussion thread 1964-2000

As noted during the Seasons in the Sun write-up, Jacks had a connection with the Beach Boys and Don't Fight the Sea has been speculated to have been attempted by the band around the time of Terry's version.

In 2010, Al Jardine did record the song on his long gestating solo album A Postcard from California and got his erstwhile band members to chip in and even appear in a video, along with some other guy



By the way, Al takes a co-write with Terry Jacks on his version.[/QUOTE]

 

Love the shot of City Hall! (As well as that Epiphone into a blonde Fender Bassman!)

 

Ron Gant was the engineer on the recordings of both the 'Morning Girl' and 'So Glad You're A Woman' editions of New Philharmonic. According to some versions of the story (there are numerous variants out there), it was Ron Gant who had acquired the rights to the New Philharmonic name. Ron Gant may or may not have been Don Gant's brother.

 

The single edit of BTO's "Take It Like A Man":



The label of the Canadian commercial 45 indicates that it was actually pressed in the United States (the Canadian promo above says "Made In Canada"):

 

Over on the RPM country chart, Carroll Baker spent the week of March 13, 1976, at #1 with another self-penned offering, "One Night Of Cheatin' (Ain't Worth The Reapin')", the title of which perhaps offers just a wee bit of a suggestion that it is a country song.

 

The following week, March 20, 1976, Carroll Baker was dethroned from the country chart summit by Dick Damron's "On The Road":



In spite of the fact that "On The Road" was a #1 country song in Canada, it was not on Youtube until a few minutes ago, I cannot find an image of the 45 anywhere online, and the asking price for the only copy for sale on Discogs is US$19.99.

"On The Road" was the third consecutive #1 country song by a Canadian artist. It does not appear that any of the three were even issued outside of Canada.

 

Michael Omartian is credited as the arranger on Andy Kim's Ice/Capitol recordings, including "Rock Me Gently". Which brings us to today's catch-up song:

Here's Andy's "Mary Ann", #90 on July 5, 1975 (arranged by 'Michael OMartian'):

Andy Kim's last Top 40 hit, as Longfellow, was also supposed to be from an album that does not appear to have ever been released.

 

Take It Like A Man : Probably BTO's last real hit. Little Richard's piano adds some weight.

Having A Party : I like how they reinvented it and gave it a glam feel.

 

Head On was a good album. I absolutely adore Lookin' Out For Number 1. Of course it didn't get higher in the charts, we bought the album.

 

178. ANYWAY YOU WANT
by CHARITY BROWN
A&M AM-410
Highest ranking for 7 weeks: April 3 (6), 10 (6), 17 (6), 24 (6) and May 1 (9), 8 (12) and 15 (15), 1976




​

After Wednesday and the THP Orchestra, this represents the third cover song in a row. Of course, Charity Brown had built her reputation around cover versions, and shockingly, this time she looked outside the Motown camp for source material - as far as I can tell, her second (and ultimately final) album Stay With Me features only one Motown cover (of a Syreeta song) and one song composed by long-time Motown staffer Deke Richards, though it doesn't appear to be a cover. It is actually quite tiring tracking down the originals on this album. Brown herself has no writing credits on it, but quite a few of the songs were likely composed for her for this album. One significant exception, however, is first single "Anyway You Want", which came out just a year previously as the opening track on Chicago VIII.

Chicago were, of course, at the time morphing from a brass-rock hybrid to a more conventional top forty act. Peter Cetera wrote "Anyway You Want", a punchy but ultimately underwhelming piano and brass-led composition with a surprising guitar solo and some rather odd vocalisation by Cetera. Brown's version is quite faithful, sounding more than a little like a Blues Brothers song at various points. Brown replaces the guitar solo with a sax solo, which is probably a good choice. Her vocals are strong throughout, even if - like Cetera - rather strange from time to time.

For a significant success that held the top-ranked Canadian song position for seven long weeks, this was Charity Brown's last real hit. She pulled two more singles from Stay With Me and released three singles after that that were presumably meant to be the cornerstones of a third album. Arguments with management and with A&M about the direction of the album led to it being shelved, replaced by what in normal circumstances would have been wildly premature: a Greatest Hits album. And then she more or less disappeared, doing voiceover work for cartoons in the 80s.

A&M put this out only in Canada and the USA, where it predictably tanked. No picture sleeves.

SUR LES PALMARÈS DU QUÉBEC: Not a huge list to get through this time, to take us from January to May. It starts with the hopelessly retro "Si tu pars emmène-moi" by Johnny Farago, a translation of Freddy Fender's "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights", translated by Farago himself. A big hit followed that, "Mélanie" by Chantal Pary and André Sylvain. It was number one for five weeks and is, to my ears, not very pleasant to listen to.

It was followed by a French singer, Gérard Lenorman, and then five weeks for André Gagnon's "Wow". From his double-platinum career peak Neiges, "Wow" was a hit in English Canada as well, making it as high as number four on the RPM 100 behind the similar "Theme From S.W.A.T." The reconstituted charts I use have a Francophone chart and an "Anglophone and Allophone" chart. I guess they decide where to put instrumentals based solely on the native tongue of the artist. In any case, it's a wonderful song, funky but still elegant. Gagnon had been releasing material for a dozen years by this point and would keep working in his prolific career right up until his passing just a few months ago, on December 3, 2020.

It's followed by Nanette Workman once more, with "Donne donne", a decent disco track quite similar to her immediately previous singles. It's followed by "La dame en bleu" by Michel Louvain, a slightly discofied AOR chanson, fine but nothing particularly memorable. Michel Louvain had a career lasting decades, and we actually spoke about him back in 1965 when his French-language song "C'est un secret" charted on RPM's main charts, an exceptionally rare feat. Louvain died less than a month ago, on April 14, 2021, and I'll confess that I'm getting tired of reporting on ultra-recent deaths from the Québec palmarès. It seems the last twelve months or so have really done damage to the Québec star system.

Belgian Robert Cogoi follows, and then Nicole Martin's take on Édith Piaf's classic "Hymne à l'amour". Her version is quite good, taking off toward the end, but it's likely one of the most-covered songs ever. Sticking just to Canadian vocalists, I can say that Offenbach, Lara Fabian, Garou and Céline Dion have all covered it. After that is the mononymous French singer Marie covering Abba's "SOS". Next is the completely ridiculous (and ultimately annoying) cod-country knees-up "Tout le monde est de bonne humeur" by Tex Lecor, a full-time painter and occasional singer/raconteur. It was number one for a single week, the final week that Charity Brown was the highest-ranking Canadian. So that brings us up to date.

 

I can't get over how cheesy it is that Peter Cetera's music publishing company is called "Polish Prince Music".

 

​

Chicago's version



Live in Germany, 1977
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJBWn1wBvcc

"Any Way You Want" reached #8 in Vancouver (CKLG), #11 at CHUM. In the wake of the hit, her first album Rock Me entered the charts for the first time, peaking the week of April 17 at #52

 

At #19 for the first of two weeks (week of April 3), Joni Mitchell with "In France They Kiss On Main Street" (#33 on the Pop Music Playlist, #16 for two weeks at CKLG in Vancouver). In the U.S. it reached #66 in Billboard, #32 on the Adult Contemporary Chart, #55 in Cash Box.



The BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test went to the trouble of creating a video for the song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSKBSSi5z6E

45 edit (12 seconds shorter)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkKbiA61N_Y

Acoustic demo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoQJErA3xBo

Live in 1979 (Shadows And Light)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgjdm5qXTX4

Swingle Singers cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAQC79uQPFE

B-side "The Boho Dance"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9wExpOXk-U

 

Spanish picture sleeve



Japan



The Hissing Of Summer Lawns was released in November of 1975, reaching #7 in Canada (26 weeks in the charts), #4 in Billboard, #14 in the U.K.

 

At #30 for the first of two weeks (week of April 3), "Lazy Love" by the New City Jam Band (#21 at CHUM, #23 at Vancouver's CKLG, #54 for the year at Ottawa's CFGO). It was also top twenty in Buffalo, #24 in Flint.



B-side "One More Time"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI_lqpl0Bvc




The New City Jam Band was actually Studebaker Hawk, who charted earlier.
Every RPM Canadian Content #1 single discussion thread 1964-2000

N

The New City Jam Band would chart again, Studebaker Hawk would not.

 

At #35 for the first of two weeks (week of April 3), Tom Middleton with "One Night Lovers". It reached #7 in Hamilton, #19 at CKLW (Windsor), #20 at CHUM.



The B-side "O'Rosey" was from his almost three years old debut album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWCGnmQzOLw



"One Night Lovers" was written by Tom "I Go Crazy" Davis, it was released back in August and took a long time to catch on (from RPM December 13, 1975)

RPM, December 20, 1975

The album of the same name would come out at the end of March. Middleton will chart once more.

 

At #72 the week of April 3 (for the first of two weeks), "Only A Friend Of Mine" b/w "Uptown Lady" by Next. Neither side is on Youtube.



Their next single was "Just Dreaming" b/w "Maybe The Next Time". Also not on line.



The third single, "You And I" b/w "When You're Singing", also not on Youtube.



Who were Next? From the January 24, 1976 issue of RPM

One year later, March 5, 1977

There would be no "next" for Next.

 

At #48 the week of April 10, Rich Wamil & Copperpenny with "Suspicious Love", #18 at Vancouver's CKLG.



B-side, Van Morrison's "Feedback Out On Highway 101
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUsPK10bPbU



Both songs were from the Fuse album. Changing the name back to just plain Copperpenny, the non-LP "Needing You" who be released in July of 1976 but would not chart. The group would then call it quits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3N72BTcGDs

B-side "I Love You"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s7Urs24Wn4



Copperpenny Music

 

Here's "High In The Rockies" by Brussel Sprout:



Every RPM Canadian Content #1 single discussion thread 1964-2000

 

Ahh Chicago's late great Terry Kath on that solo. When he tragically died in January '78, Chicago was already on it's way down the slippery slope to schlockdom. When they got David Foster to produce in the mid 80's they had some big hits but they were basically Peter Cetera's backup band (as Foster saw it).

 

At #56 for the first of two weeks (week of April 10), Gail Dahms with "Can't We Somehow Get Us Back Together" b/w "I May Never See You Again" on Axe Records. It's not on Youtube.





Nor is her second single "This Song Reminds Me Of You" b/w "Here It Comes Again"



But her third and final one is, "Rescue Me". It would debut at #49 on RPM's MOR Playlist in October of 1976, the record would be flipped and a cover of "If I Fell" would reach #20 on the MOR chart for two weeks in December.





Gail Dahms was an 17-years-old high school student in Kitchener in 1975 when she was chosen to star in what would be one of the most famous Canadian advertising campaigns of all time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4IyoI77j1Q

She soon became a regular on the TV show In Good Company (produced by the brother of the advertising agency that made the commercial). She was quickly signed by Greg Hambleton to Axe Records and her first single was released in January of 1976
http://rpmimages.3345.ca/pdfs/Volume+24+No.+16+-+January+17,+1976.pdf (page 10)

She was nominated for a Juno in 1977 as Most Promising Female Vocalist (losing to Colleen Peterson, who appeared on her first record in 1970) and was a presenter at the Awards with Sharon Lee Williams and Randy Bachman.

 

Her first film credit came in 1978 with The Silent Partner




She then appeared in the 1979 Canuxploitation film Stone Cold Dead (which featured Paul Williams as a pimp). She can be seen at the 1:50 mark. Paul Zaza did the soundtrack.



She starred for two seasons (1979-1981) in the CBC sitcom Flappers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvwaK7zv_-U

Then it was off to Broadway for Sugar Babies with Mickey Rooney



"Sultry actress lands role in big musical" (Regina Leader-Post, August 24, 1984)
The Leader-Post - Google News Archive Search

In Killing Em' Softly aka The Man In 5A as a prostitute...ooh, she loves ice cream
https://youtu.be/h22poa_fAT8?t=3305

Killing 'em Softly - Wikipedia

She would leave show business soon after, and is now a Baptist Worship Pastor in Boise, Idaho

 

At #77 (without a MAPL wheel) the week of April 10, the return of R. Dean Taylor with "We'll Show Them All" b/w "Magdelena". Neither is on Youtube. In Canada, the record came out on Taylor's own Jane label (which he started in 1973), while in the U.S. it was the new Farr label (Taylor was the first artist signed to it).




R. Dean Taylor's last hit in Canada was the creepy "Shadow" in 1973 (#75). Later the same year he started his own Jane label, the first release would be "Sweet Flowers" b/w "Bonnie"

 

It wouldn't chart, nor would "Who Will Wipe My Tears Away (The Rad Doll Song)" b/w "Mandy". However, his 1967 single "There's A Ghost In My House" had become popular with the "Northern Soul" set at the Wigan Casino in the north of England. It was re-issued and peaked at #3 on the UK Charts (week of June 15, 1974).



Taylor went to England and toured the "Northen Soul" hot spots.



To take advantage of his UK popularity, Polydor would release "Window Shopping" (with "Bonnie" recycled as the B-side), it reached #36 (week of September 21, 1974). At the same time Motown re-issued Taylor's 1968 hit "Gotta See Jane" (#41 week of October 5)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkTsuJIFGx0

In "Window Shopping" sounds a bit retro, Taylor originally wrote it for The Messengers in 1967
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2f-a20bAjk

Belgium picture sleeve



Germany and Yugoslavia

 

The Netherlands



Spain




Here's rare footage of R. Dean miming to "Don't Fool Around" the 1968 B-side to "Gotta See Jane" on the Dutch TV show TopPop (October 12, 1974), strangely looking like Oliver Reed.



"Walking In The Sun" (b/w a recycled "Who Will Wipe My Tears Away") came out in Canada and the U.K. in 1975, reaching #20 for two weeks in Vancouver (CKLG)